CHAPTER XXVII.
ISHMAEL"S FIRST STEP ON THE LADDER.
There is a proud modesty in merit Averse to asking, and resolved to pay Ten times the gift it asks.
--_Dryden_.
Early the next morning the professor made his appearance at the Hill Hut. Ishmael and Hannah had eaten breakfast, and the boy was helping his aunt to put the warp in the loom for a new piece of cloth.
"Morning, Miss Hannah; morning, young Ishmael! You are wanted, sir, up to the Hall this morning, and I am come to fetch you," said the professor, as he stood within the door, hat in hand.
"Yes, I thought I would be; there must be no end of the rubbish to clear away, and the work to do up there now, and I knew you would be expecting me to help you, and so I meant to go up to your house just as soon as ever I had done helping aunt to put the warp in her loom," answered Ishmael simply.
"Oh, you think you are wanted only to be set to work, do you? All right!
But now as we are in a hurry, I"ll just lend a hand to this little job, and help it on a bit." And with that the artist, who was as expert at one thing as at another, began to aid Hannah with such good will that the job was soon done.
"And now, young Ishmael, get your hat and come along. We must be going."
But now, Hannah, who had been far too much interested in her loom to stop to talk until its arrangements were complete, found time to ask:
"What about that fire at Brudenell Hall?"
"Didn"t young Ishmael tell you, ma"am?" inquired the professor.
"Very little! I was asleep when he came in last night, and this morning, when I saw that his clothes were all scorched, and his hair singed, and his hands and face red and blistered, and I asked him what in the world he had been doing to himself, he told me there had been a fire at the Hall; but that it was put out before any great damage had been done; nothing but that old wing, that they talked about pulling down, burnt, as if to save them the trouble," answered Hannah.
"Well, ma"am, that was a cheerful way of putting it, certainly; and it was also a true one; there wasn"t much damage done, as the wing that was burnt was doomed to be pulled down this very spring. But did young Ishmael tell you how he received his injuries?"
"No; but I suppose of course he got them, boy-like, bobbing about among the firemen, where he had no business to be!"
"Ma"am, he got burned in saving Commodore Burghe"s sons, who were fast asleep in that burning wing! Mrs. Middleton offered freedom to any slave who would venture through the house to wake them up, and get them out.
Not a man would run the risk! Then she offered freedom, not only to any slave, but also to the wife and children of any slave who would go in and save the boys. Not a man would venture! And when all the women were a-howling like a pack of she-wolves, what does your nephew do but rush into the burning wing, rouse up the boys and convoy them out! Just in time, too! for they were sleeping in the chamber over the burning room, and in two minutes after they got out the floor of that room fell in!"
said Morris.
"You did that! You!" exclaimed Hannah vehemently. "Oh! you horrid, wicked, ungrateful, heartless boy! to do such a thing as that, when you knew if you had been burnt to death, it would have broken my heart! And you, professor! you are just as bad as he is! yes, and worse too, because you are older and ought to have more sense! The boy was in your care! pretty care you took of him to let him rush right into the fire."
"Ma"am, if you"ll only let me get in a word edgeways like, I"ll tell you all about it! I did try to hinder him! I reasoned with him, and I held him tight, until the young hero--rascal, I mean--turned upon me and hit me in the face; yes, ma"am, administered a "scientific" right into my left eye, and then broke from me and rushed into the burning house--"
"Well, but I thought it better the professor should have a black eye than the boys should be burned to death," put in the lad, edgeways.
"Oh, Ishmael, Ishmael, this is dreadful! You will live to be hung, I know you will!" sobbed Hannah.
"Well, aunty, maybe so; Sir William Wallace did," coolly replied the boy.
"What in the name of goodness set you on to do such a wild thing? And all for old Burghe"s sons! Pray, what were they to you that you should rush through burning flames for them?"
"Nothing, Aunt Hannah; only I felt quite sure that Israel Putnam or Francis Marion would have done just as I did, and so--"
"Plague take Francis Putnam and Israel Marion, and also Patrick Handc.o.c.k, and the whole lot of "em, I say! Who are they that you should run your head into the fire for them? They wouldn"t do it for you, that I know," exclaimed Hannah.
"Aunt Hannah," said Ishmael pathetically, "you have got their names all wrong, and you always do! Now, if you would only take my book and read it while you are resting in your chair, you would soon learn all their names, and--"
"I"ll take the book and throw it into the fire the very first time I lay my hands on it! The fetched book will be your ruin yet!" exclaimed Hannah, in a rage.
"Now, Miss Worth," interposed the professor, "if you destroy that boy"s book, I"ll never do another odd job for you as long as ever I live."
"Whist! professor," whispered Ishmael. "You don"t know my Aunt Hannah as well as I do. Her bark is a deal worse than her bite! If you only knew how many times she has threatened to "shake the life out of" me, and to "be the death of me", and to "flay" me "alive," you would know the value of her words."
"Well, young Ishmael, you are the best judge of that matter, at least.
And now are you ready? For, indeed, we haven"t any more time to spare.
We ought to have been at the Hall before this."
"Why, professor, I have been ready and waiting for the last ten minutes."
"Come along, then. And now, Miss Hannah, you take a well-wisher"s advice and don"t scold young Ishmael any more about last night"s adventur". He has done a brave act, and he has saved the commodore"s sons without coming to any harm by it. And, if he hasn"t made his everlasting fortun", he has done himself a great deal of credit and made some very powerful friends. And that I tell you! You wait and see!" said the professor, as he left the hut, followed by Ishmael.
The morning was clear and bright after the rain. As they emerged into the open air Ishmael naturally raised his eyes and threw a glance across the valley to Brudenell Heights. The main building was standing intact, though darkened; and a smoke, small in volume but dense black in hue, was rising from the ruins of the burnt wing.
Ishmael had only time to observe this before they descended the narrow path that led through the wooded valley. They walked on in perfect silence until the professor, noticing the unusual taciturnity of his companion, said:
"What is the matter with you, young Ishmael? You haven"t opened your mouth since we left the hut."
"Oh, professor, I am thinking of Aunt Hannah. It is awful to hear her rail about the great heroes as she does. It is flat blasphemy," replied the boy solemnly.
"Hum, ha, well, but you see, young Ishmael, though I wouldn"t like to say one word to dampen your enthusiasm for great heroism, yet the truth is the truth; and that compels me to say that you do fall down and worship these same said heroes a little too superst.i.tiously. Why, law, my boy, there wasn"t one of them, at twelve years of age, had any more courage or wisdom than you have--even if as much."
"Oh, professor, don"t say that--don"t! it is almost as bad as anything Aunt Hannah says of them. Don"t go to compare their great boyhood with mine. History tells what they were, and I know myself what I am."
"I doubt if you do, young Ishmael."
"Yes! for I know that I haven"t even so much as the courage that you think I have; for, do you know, professor, when I was in that burning house I was frightened when I saw the red smoke rolling into the pa.s.sage and heard the fire roaring so near me? And once--I am ashamed to own it, but I will, because I know George Washington always owned his faults when he was a boy--once, I say, I was tempted to run away and leave the boys to their fate."
"But you didn"t do it, my lad. And you were not the less courageous because you knew the danger that you freely met. You are brave, Ishmael, and as good and wise as you are brave."
"Oh, professor, I know you believe so, else you wouldn"t say it; but I cannot help thinking that if I really were good I shouldn"t vex Aunt Hannah as often as I do."
"Humph!" said the professor.
"And then if I were wise, I would always know right from wrong."
"And don"t you?"
"No, professor; because last night when I ran into the burning house to save the boys I thought I was doing right; and when the ladies so kindly thanked me, I felt sure I had done right; but this morning, when Aunt Hannah scolded me, I doubted."
"My boy, listen to the oracles of experience. Do what your own conscience a.s.sures you to be right, and never mind what others think or say. I, who have been your guide up to this time, can be so no longer. I can scarcely follow you at a distance, much less lead you. A higher hand than Old Morris" shall take you on. But here we are now at the Hall,"
said the professor, as he opened the gates to admit himself and his companion.